Archive for December, 2014

Here’s an update on the new drawing I’ve started. I’ve roughed in the values a bit using complementary colors. The medium I’m using here are hard pastels, called “Nupastels,” now sold by Prismacolor.

I’ve digitally switched the hues here to show you the targeted colors I plan to use in the final. That will be tree leaves behind her. Drawing in complements first gives me more color harmony.

One of the nice features of working on a rough surface such as this Wallis paper is that even lighter values can be used at any point in the process. This happens when the new application knocks off and replaces the top layer of pigment that falls into the lower level of the texture. The rougher the texture is, the more effective this technique becomes. In the picture above I’ve drawn a bright white Nupastel over a dark black. If this were smoother paper, the result would just be a gray smearing of the two colors.

I had fun with the textured surface for the last piece I made, so I thought I would make another colored pencil drawing. This time the surface is a sheet of Wallis paper. I toned it with a thin wash of the black QOR watercolor paint that I bought recently.

The drawing is of my friend, Carol, who I made a photograph of and will use as a reference. You should see her image lightly outlined on the page above. The size of the paper is 16 x 12 inches.

Note: I’ve noticed that the Wallis paper is difficult to come by now. I don’t know if more will be available any time soon.

Okay, so I changed my mind. I liked how the colored pencils looked on this textured stone, so decided to keep the whole thing as a drawing instead of using paint. It will save some wear on my brushes also.

I’ve started a new painting, and this will come from me playing around with textured stone and oils.

I made this small ceramic slab from air-dry clay sold by Crayola. The size is roughly 5 x 7 inches. For the subject of the painting I chose myself, and made a quick pencil sketch on paper while looking in a mirror.

I dug out an old bottle of Liquitex medium I had called Ceramic Stucco. This is an acrylic gel that can be used to add surface texture. I spread a thin layer on my clay slab, and after it dried I tinted it with a thinned coat of Raw Sienna oil paint. I wanted a little more color texture, so I lightly added a shade of Derwent watercolor pencil Venetian Red.

To transfer my sketch to the stone, I found that a charcoal rubbing on the back to the rough texture of the stone wasn’t transferring as well as I needed, so instead I used an old animation technique of page flipping. This method requires laying the sketch on top, securely taped, and flip the page up rapidly so that there is a blur of where the lines were (“persistence of vision.”) As I flip up the drawing, I make small marks on the stone where the lines should be, then remove the paper and clean up the drawing on the stone. For the darker shade I used a Burnt Umber Derwent Aquatone pencil. Now I’m ready to start painting.